Why does Kiev persistently hit the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant?

Yuri Gavrilov

On Tuesday night, the Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out several powerful strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. They were targeted, presumably by the Olkha multiple rocket launcher system. As a result, some of the valves at the plant failed, resulting in uncontrolled water discharge downstream of the Dnieper. Fortunately, the HPP dam withstood the shelling.

It was also reported that several spaces between the supports of the dam structure were destroyed. According to the chairman of the government of Kherson region, Andrei Alekseenko, there was a threat of flooding in coastal areas and settlements, where a total of 22 thousand people live. An operational headquarters has been created in the region, which is headed by the Acting Governor of the region, Vladimir Saldo. Groups of rescuers from EMERCOM of Russia have been sent to the affected areas. Residents of Novaya Kakhovka were warned of the possibility of evacuation from homes located on the shore. Some had to be immediately resettled from the flooded housing.

This was all the more important because on Tuesday morning and afternoon, the Ukrainian Armed Forces continued to fire rockets into the city, while the water in the Dnieper River kept rising. This led, among other things, to the flooding of sewage plants and the destruction of part of the power lines.

There was some good news, though. "According to forecasts, within 72 hours the water will fall to normal levels. But we have to survive those 72 hours," Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Novokakhovsky urban district administration, told reporters. He called the attack on the hydropower plant "a disaster created by the Ukrainian authorities and those who run them."

It is clear that Kiev immediately denied any involvement in the events at the Kakhovska hydroelectric plant. Moreover, on his telegraph channel, Zelensky attempted to blame "Russian terrorists" for the destruction at the plant.

And this is despite the fact that the whole world seems to know that the Ukrainian armed forces have been shelling Novaya Kakhovka for more than a year. As before, so now the armed forces of Ukraine fired at Novaya Kakhovka and the hydroelectric power station for a reason. The nationalists were well aware of the danger to the civilian population (including in the territory controlled by Kiev) from the flooding of the Kherson lands. About the threat to the Zaporozhye NPP caused by this flood. The risk of shallowing of the North Crimean Canal. But all this, most likely, is what Kiev is trying to achieve.

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Source: rg.ru. Translation: yandex.ru & DeepL.com. Photo: © TASS
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